- [Janeway examines a spherical object]
- Harry Kim: Captain! Don't touch that.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: What is it?
- Harry Kim: I don't know, but a few minutes ago it was crawling around the floor.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [entering a cargo bay full of Borg ship debris] Now, this is how I prefer the Borg: in pieces.
- Harry Kim: [after destroying a Borg vessel] I wish that boom had been a bit smaller; we were only trying to disable them.
- Tom Paris: They were drones, Harry, mindless automatons. We did them a favor.
- [Seven of Nine appears behind Paris, obviously aware of his comment]
- Harry Kim: Seven!
- Tom Paris: [embarrassed] Um... look, I, I didn't mean anything by that.
- Seven of Nine: Your apology is irrelevant. It's impossible to offend a mindless drone.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [after several training sessions on a "Borg vessel"] I don't know about you, but I'm glad to be back on Voyager. Borg vessels make my skin crawl.
- Seven of Nine: It was a holodeck recreation.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Close enough.
- Seven of Nine: Over the past two years, I have become familiar with the individuals on this vessel. Voyager is my Collective now. Your survival is important to me. I am willing to risk my own well-being if it increases our chances of success. Assign me to the away team. Please.
- Chakotay: Maybe I should go to red alert and get it over with.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Commander?
- Chakotay: You're about to drop one of your bombshells.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Now, what makes you say that?
- Chakotay: The way you fiddle with your combadge. You do it every time.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: We've proven ourselves against the Borg once before - twice before - but we're always the ones under attack. I think it's time to do a little assimilating of our own.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [of a Borg vessel] So, what we have here, in two simple words, is... Fort Knox.
- The Doctor: Eureka! I was hoping to find one of these. it's a servo-armature from a medical repair drone - laser scalpel, bio-molecular scanner, micro-suture, all rolled into one instrument.
- Tom Paris: No Federation sickbay should be without one.
- The Doctor: [on the Borg research of Seven's parents] This is an important stage of your social development, Seven. Try not to think of it as simply a research project but as an exploration of how you were raised.
- Seven of Nine: My parents underestimated the Collective. They were destroyed. Because of their arrogance, I was raised by Borg.
- Borg Queen: We've come to make you an offer: rejoin the Collective and we'll spare Voyager.
- Seven of Nine: Why me?
- Borg Queen: Because... you are unique.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Seven - you've made remarkable progress as an individual... and as a member of this crew. For what it's worth... Voyager wouldn't be the same without you.
- Borg Queen: Congratulations.
- Seven of Nine: Regarding?
- Borg Queen: Assimilation is complete.
- Seven of Nine: 300,000 individuals have been transformed into drones. Should they be congratulated as well?
- Borg Queen: They should be. They've left behind their trivial, selfish lives, and they've been reborn with a greater purpose. We've delivered them from chaos into order.
- Seven of Nine: Comforting words. Use them next time instead of "Resistance is futile." You may elicit a few volunteers.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship... and never abandon a member of your crew.
- [first lines]
- The Borg: A vessel has been detected. Unimatrix 424, Grid 116. Activate. Alter course to intercept.
- Borg Queen: We are Borg.
- Seven of Nine: [angrily] I am an individual.
- Borg Queen: You're only repeating their words. You sound like a mindless automaton.
- Borg Queen: You've changed. Your exo-plating, your ocular implant. They've taken you apart... and they've recreated you in their own image - hair, garments - but at the core, you are still mine.
- Seven of Nine: The Borg have changed as well. I expected re-assimilation, not conversation.
- Borg Queen: I see they've also given you a sense of humor.
- Seven of Nine: My humor is my own.
- Borg Queen: Spoken like a true individual.
- Borg Queen: We don't want another drone. We want you.
- Seven of Nine: I will resist.
- Borg Queen: I know.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [of the Hansens] I agree their methods were unorthodox, but... that's been true of most great explorers.
- The Doctor: Most explorers don't take their four-year-old daughter along for the ride.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: What's running through that collective mind of yours? You've got thousands of species to choose from, billions of individuals. Why Seven of Nine? You should've assimilated us while you had the chance.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Let her go, or I'll give the order to fire.
- Borg Queen: You would be destroyed as well, along with your crewman.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Better than being one of you.
- Seven of Nine: The Borg believed I was unique, that I understood humanity. They were obviously mistaken.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: How so?
- Seven of Nine: I've betrayed the crew of Voyager, threatened you with assimilation. I did not expect you to return for me.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Looks like you still have a few things to learn.
- Borg Queen: All of your emotions - grief, guilt, remorse, compsiion - will be irrelevant once humanity is assimilated.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: I realize the two of you weren't exactly close. Regardless, we just lost one of our own.
- B'Elanna Torres: She was never one of our own, Captain. Didn't she just prove that?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: I don't know what happened on that sphere, and neither do you, Lieutenant.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: We'll be searching for one individual among thousands of drones, but she's one of us... and I'm not about to let her go.
- Seven of Nine: I am Annika Hansen, Human.
- Borg Queen: I remember Annika. Does she remember us? She wasn't afraid. Why are you?
- Borg Queen: We won't turn you into a drone. You're much too valuable to us with your individuality intact, but you've left humanity behind. Try to abandon their petty emotions as well. Fear... anger... vanity. They've corrupted you, but the damage can be repaired.
- Borg Queen: Stop resisting. Take pleasure in this.
- Seven of Nine: I will not take pleasure in the destruction of a race!
- Borg Queen: Human sentiment. Compassion, guilt, empathy - they're irrelevant.
- Seven of Nine: Not to me.
- Borg Queen: "Me?" There is no 'me.' There is only 'us.' One mind.
- Seven of Nine: My thoughts are my own.
- Seven of Nine: You attacked us. You murdered my family!
- Borg Queen: We did no such thing. We gave them perfection.
- [one Borg steps forward into the light]
- Seven of Nine: [aghast] Papa?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Seven, shut down that field.
- Borg Queen: Don't listen to her. She's poisoned your thoughts long enough.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: [to Seven] I'm giving you an order.
- Borg Queen: One order, one voice! Insignificant!